Alexander Ross
Text Arcana Microcosmi, b. II, ch. VI English original Ursus gemino cornu gravis. But the true Unicorn hath the proportion and bignesse of a Horse, the head, legs and feet of a Stagge, and the mane of an horse; he hath a horn in his forehead, saith Cardan (de subtil. l''. 10.) three cubits long; two of these Unicorns were seen at ''Mecha, of which see Parry in his 21 Book of poisons, Munster and Fernandus de Cordova, [l''. 5. ''didas. c''. 9.] 3. The reason why the ''Unicorn is differently described, is, because divers Authors confound him with the Naricorn, or else because there be divers species of Unicorns, as there be of Dogs and other Animals, or else because they vary the colour and bignesse of their horn according to their age and climat wherein they live, as other beasts doe: but from variety of description and circumstances, we must not infer a nullity of the substance, as Parry doth; for so wee may deny the Rhinoceros, which is diversly described; Strabo makes him like a BearStrabo XVI.4.15. Like a boar, not like a bear, presumably a typographical error rather than a mistaken reading. In the following bracketed references, "l. 16" goes with Strabo and "de sub. l. 10" goes with Cardan. Economical but confusing. [l''. 16 ''de sub. l''. 10.] ''Cardan, like a Bull, others like an Elephant. [See Parry, Cardan, Fern. de Cord. Pausanias, Scaliger, Munster, Pliny, Solinus, Cæsar, Ælian, Polyhistor.] Some give him but one horn, some two, which with some is crooked, with others straight. I therefore make no question of the true Unicorn, as he is commonly painted, because Vertomanus saw two of them, as Scaliger witnesseth, and so did Lewis Bothema, who as some say, is the same with Vertomanus, Justin Martyr, Basil, and others of the Fathers; Yea, the holy scriptures seem to favour this description, Job 39.9. will the Unicorn be willing to serve thee &c.? The Hebrew word Rem is by Hierom, Montanus, and Aquila, translated Rhinoceros; but by the 70 Monoceros. Yet in another place Hierom and Montanus translated the word Unicorn: and in this place it cannot signifie Rhinoceros, because this beast hath been oftentimes subdued by man, and bound, as we read in the Roman stories, but so was never the Unicorn brought into subjection, as God sheweth to Job: And when David saith,In the 92nd Psalm. ] I see no reason why a short horn may not be exalted. He shall be exalted like the Horn of an Unicorn, he cannot mean the Rhinoceros, who of all cornuted Animals, hath the shortest Horn; but the true Unicorn, whose Horn is the highest of all others; for else Davids comparison had been childish. Now for the Horn it self, and vertues thereof, they are rejected by Rondeletius, Parry, Brown, and some others. Rondeletius [l''. 21. ''de venenis, c''. 61.] found no more vertue in this Horn then in an Elephants Tooth. ''Parry found no vertue in the French Kings Horn. Brown rejects the Horn, it is so diversly described. 2. The Ancients adscribed no vertue to it. 3. It cannot resist Arsenick, and poisons, which kill by second qualities. To these I answer, 1. If it be suficient to deny an Horn, for that it is differently described, we may deny the Harts Horns, for there are great differences of them, some bigger and higher then others, some more branchy, some harder, some are cloathed with a soft Doun, others are not; and they have not all of them exactly the same colour. Neither do I allow, that all which are called Unicorns horns, are true; for some are fictitious. 2. If the Ancients adscribed no vertue to this horn, why was it of such account among them? Why did the Indian Princes drink out of them, and make Cups and Rings of them, which either they wore on their fingers, or applied to their breasts, but that they knew there was in them an antidotal vertue against poison, as Andreth Baccius [l. de Unicor.] sheweth,Andrea Baccio's Discorso dell'alicorno. Nel quale si tratta della natura dell'alicorno, & delle molte sue virtù;: revisto dal propio autore con aggiunta delle esperienze, & di molte cose notabili contro a' veleni etc. of 1582. and the Doctor denieth not Antidotall efficacy, and such as the Ancients commended in this Horn and yet two lines before, denies that the Ancients adscribed any vertue to it. But sure it is apparent, that not only there is an occult quality in it against poison, as in the Elks Hoof against the falling sicknesse, but also by manifest qualities it works; for Baccius proves it to be of an excessive drying quality, and therefore good against worms and putrefaction. And that Riccius the Physitian did use sometimes the weight of a scruple, sometimes of ten grains thereof in burning fevers with good successe. 3. That it can resist Arsnick, the same Baccius proves, by the experiment which the Cardinal of Trent made upon two Pigeons, [l. de Unic.] to which he caused some Arsenick to be given: shortly after he gave som scrapings of his Unicorns horn to one of them, which after some symptomes recovered and lived, the other died two hours after it had eaten the Arsenick: The same Horn cured divers pestilential Fevers, and such as were poisoned. Hence then it appears, that this Horn was both commended by the Ancients, namely, by Ælian, Philostrates, and divers others, as also by modern Physitians, as Ficinus, Brasavolus, Matthiolus, Mandella, and many more. It is true, that some might not find the vertue of it, either because it was not the true Horn, or the true dosis was not exhibited, or due time was not observed, or else the malignancy of the disease would not yeild: ForInterdum etc.: Ovid epist. ex Ponto, Lib. I, iii.18. Interdum docta plus valet arte malum. But from hence to deny the Horn of its vertue, were all one as to deny Rhubarb, Agarick, Sena, or other Simples, because they do not always produce the wished effect, or work upon all bodies at all times alike. The means to discriminate the true Unicorns horn from the false, are two, to wit, if it cause the liquor in which it is put, to bubble; and secondly, if it sweat when the poison is near it, as Baccius tells us. ---- }} External links * In the pages of the University of Chicago Category:Sources Category:English sources